Rupert Murdoch has developed semi-mythical status, an enigmatic figure with tentacles of influence extending all over the globe. He has immense power in Australia, the USA and of course Britain. Just a simple outline of the newspapers his company News International owns, reveals a staggering level of media control: the Sun, the News of the World, the Times and the Sunday Times. The Sun is the highest selling daily newspaper in the UK and the Times is the second highest selling broadsheet. Between these titles is 37% of newspaper circulation in the UK. He also owns 39.1% of BskyB, and hopes to take full control, meaning that he would dominate the pay-per-view TV market. Now this article is not arguing that there is anything wrong with owning national newspapers or even a business like BskyB, but there is something wrong when one man owns so much. The media has an influence over people and this can be used to damage both democracy and individual liberty. The media has the ability to shed light on truth and to fight for just causes but it can also be a weapon in manipulating mindsets, ruining reputations and spreading falsehoods.
It may be a truism, but the media is powerful. When it is put like that the sentence comes across as pointless, but in fact people underestimate how much they are swayed by what they read. We can appreciate that newspapers influence opinion, but often we forget how it influences our own minds. A newspaper can frame the way world is seen by allowing publication of some articles rather than others and also by the way it news events are described. The Sun – a supporter of the Conservatives – describes George Osborne’s plan to cut £83 billion pounds in public spending as “bold” and highlights how
“Mr Osborne has made the intelligence services and their fight against terror one of his highest priorities.”Then in a childishly written paragraph:
“The Chancellor also unveiled a three-pronged new clampdown on benefit fraud, which costs £1.5billion a year under which EVERY false claim, no matter how minor, will mean an immediate £50 fine, WELFARE cheats caught for the third time will have their handouts stopped for as long as four years, as long as they don't have any dependents - and HIT SQUADS will target hotspots where work-shy fraudsters exploit the system.”The array of emphatic and emotive language like “three-pronged”, “clampdown” and “work-shy fraudsters” are interspersed with words in bold and in capitals. The Sun is drawing attention to what their readers would like to see, an attack on people who wrongly claim benefits. Only passing mention is made of how:
“some departments - including the Ministry of Justice - will see their money slashed by about 30 PER CENT”No mention is made of economists who are worried by Osborne’s moves. Now, the Sun is not the only newspaper that styles news coverage in an opinionated way, and it can be equally said that when newspapers like the Guardian are drawing attention to the dangers of public sector cuts, they are being equally biased. The problem is not so much bias, but that the bias contained within the Sun, the News of the World, the Times, the Sunday Times and Sky News are largely Murdoch’s bias. Murdoch’s own political views, which includes opposition to the EU, dislike of the BBC and support for business deregulation, are fed into his newspapers.In the 2010 General Election, Murdoch’s papers decided to switch support to the Conservatives, and coverage since the announcement involved countless attacks on Gordon Brown and the Labour government. When this bias is combined with a fierce determination to weaken the largely independent and impartial BBC, then we are in a position whereby one party has a lot of support in the media and it is very difficult to get at the facts or to avoid overt bias.
Another problem is the control News International has over the governments of the day and the power his organisations hold over MP’s. There have been allegations that News International put pressure on MPs not to call the then Sun editor Rebekah Wade to be questioned over the News of the World phone hacking scandal. Adam Price, an MP on the select committee investigating the scandal, says thus;
“I was told by a senior Conservative member of the committee, who I knew was in direct contact with executives at News International, that if we went for her, they would go for us – effectively that they would delve into our personal lives in order to punish them.”This is an astonishing claim and if true, pinpoints the incredible power of the media. Similarly, Labour MP Tom Watson said he was threatened when he called for Tony Blair to resign in 2006;
[was informed by ] “a very senior News International journalist… that Rebekah would never forgive me for what I did and that she would pursue me through parliament for the rest of my time as an MP".These two examples show that the media is becoming a force that has few checks – the body that is meant to be sovereign is being pushed away from doing it’s job, because it fears what the media can do.
It is clear that Murdoch and News International have too much power and influence. This can be seen not only in their ownership of a large proportion of news circulation, but also how this is used to push forward an agenda beneficial to News International. Furtherly when News International journalists have committed illegal and intrusive acts there are allegations that MPs were blocked from investigating this fully. All of this emphasises how there should be a limit on the number of publications owned by one company and there should be a thorough investigation into News of the World phone hacking scandal. Within a democratic nation we must be vigilant and prevent concentrations of power whether it is in Parliament, in the Civil Service, in big business or in trade unions, and also when it is in the media.
References:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/oct/03/phone-hacking-scandal-andy-coulson
http://www.slate.com/id/2268073/
http://www.cjr.org/the_audit/murdochs_threat_to_democracy.php
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/oct/03/phone-hacking-scandal-andy-coulson
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